ENTERING OUR INHERITANCE IN JESUS CHRIST


EASTER THURSDAY

Act 3:11-26; Ps 8:2,5-9; Lk 24:35-48

We are Heirs of the Covenant of God

The apostles and disciples were still not convinced of the story or Good News of the resurrection of Jesus Christ after those who encountered him narrated the story. Hence, Jesus appeared among them and greeted them: ‘Peace be with you.’ Their confused minds and unbelieving hearts caused them to be terrified at the appearance of the risen Lord. “In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost.” Notwithstanding their fellowship and interaction with him before his crucifixion, they were still not sure of what to believe. Jesus spoke openly and prophesied about his coming passion and death to them, yet they did not accept he rose from the dead. The prophets wrote these things to make us understand how difficult it is for the human mind to comprehend divine reality without divine aid or grace. Many have read about Jesus Christ and heard people preach about his power to save. The truths of God will not stick to our natural minds nor inflame our hearts without a spiritual renewal or birth. Baptism is necessary for us to have communion with God and possess divine truth within us. Even after baptism, we still need to feed regularly on the spiritual realities to transform from natural to supernatural life. Appearing before them, the risen Lord calmed their agitations of the disciples and dispersed their fears.

In addition, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. He needed to do this because the scriptures, as sources of spiritual truths, are sealed and inaccessible to our natural minds without regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Believing and turning to the risen Lord opens our minds and hearts to understand and love spiritual realities. “Then he told them, ‘This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms has to be fulfilled.’ He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures.” Many things are written in the scriptures about us, who will come to believe in the name of Jesus Christ and be baptised into his death to share his life. Without faith in Jesus Christ, we cannot access these mysteries about our lives. The incarnation of the Son of God is for us and our salvation; everything he said and did is our heritage. Without believing and getting acquainted with the risen Lord, the scriptural prophecies about us will remain hidden from us. Their fulfilment in our lives would cause agitations and fear as the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ did to the disciples. We must read, meditate, and contemplate the word of God daily to get familiar with what God has given us in Jesus Christ.

Saint Peter talks about what God called us to inherit in his preaching in the Temple. “You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with our ancestors when he told Abraham: In your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed. It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.’” We are heirs of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, for through these mysteries, we have access to God’s life and truths. Without entering into our inheritance in Jesus Christ through faith, we will continue to be agitated and fearful of what God will bring our way, for he has recorded every day of our lives in his book. We will be acting in ignorance as the Jews did when they crucified the Lord of life. “Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing; this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer.” We do not inherit the glories of Christ alone; we also inherit his suffering and death, as the ritual of our baptism demonstrates. We were baptised into his death to have a share in his life. The more we go deeper into the death of Christ, the better we participate in his life in the Spirit. The Christian life is a journey into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. It is a death and life experience. If we cease to die, we cease to share the life of Jesus Christ. The risen Lord admonishes us not to let our hearts be agitated by our experience of his death and life.

Let us pray: O God, who have united the many nations in confessing your name, grant that those reborn in the font of Baptism may be one in the faith of their hearts and the homage of their deeds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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